Community Corner
Burke Historical Society meeting
Please join us at this public meeting of the Burke Historical Society, held at the Lutheran Church of the Abiding Presence. BHS member Bob Clark will present a screening of the historic silent film, “The Road to Happiness”.
“The Road to Happiness” was made in Fairfax County in 1924 by Ford Motor Company, and shown throughout the United States as part of a public relations campaign to shape public opinion to support government investment in more hard-surface, all-weather roads. Ford chose Fairfax County because of the sorry condition of the county’s roads, many of which were little more than muddy trails. Some of the film’s action takes place on Ox Road and at the Fairfax Railroad Station, both nearby landmarks for us. The film deteriorated badly over the years, but the 23 minutes or so that survived have been beautifully restored and digitally re-mastered, so we will get a vivid look at the rural farm life that was Fairfax County between the Civil War and World War II. There is to our knowledge no other film record of our county as it was just before the massive changes that made it the heavily populated suburbia that we know and usually take for granted. Since the BHS Christmas Party this year (December 15) will have as its theme the 1920s, this is a good opportunity to meet the people of 1920s Fairfax.
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There will be additional comments both before and after the film by Bob Clark, Professor Emeritus of Government at George Mason University. Bob taught at Mason for thirty years before retiring in 2007. He discovered this film in the early 1990s, and used it in several of his classes. Bob and his wife, Marie, have lived in Burke since 1977, and have been BHS members since 2010.
